bit.bio closes a $50 million series C round after its 2025 restructuring

The funding comes after a strategic reset in 2025, when bit.bio stepped back from developing its own cell therapies and restructured the business to focus on its platform and tools offering. That shift included job cuts and the wind-down of an internal therapeutics program, repositioning the company as a cell programming and manufacturing specialist rather than a drug developer.

bit.bio after 2025: from therapeutics ambition to tools provider

In early 2025, the company reduced its workforce by around 25% and made the decision to wind down its internal therapeutics efforts, choosing instead to concentrate on its cell programming and manufacturing capabilities. At the time, bit.bio said the move was aimed at sharpening its focus on areas where it sees the strongest commercial traction, meaning supplying defined human cells and related tools to researchers and drug developers.

This was a break from the company’s earlier ambitions in cell therapy. At the time, bit.bio was roughly 18 months away from filing for a clinical trial for its lead liver cell therapy program. 

Before it made the decision to fully drop its therapeutics development, bit.bio had begun shifting toward a broader platform play. In December 2024, the company raised $30 million, already led by M&G Investments, bringing in new board members with experience in research tools, including Jonathan Milner, Abcam’s founder, taking the interim CEO spot, and company founder Mark Kotter stepping down from the position. 

That round was described as accelerating bit.bio’s transformation into a provider of human cells for research, drug discovery, and, potentially, cell therapies, rather than solely developing internal pipeline programs. The focus was on commercializing bit.bio’s opti-ox cell programming technology and expanding its ioCells portfolio of reproducible human cell types for external customers.

The strategic refocus in 2025 was also accompanied by changes at the top of the organization. Milner stepped down from the CEO role after a brief interim period, and then-CFO Przemek Obloj took over as chief executive. bit.bio also simplified its board in early 2025, with several people stepping down as the company adjusted its governance to match its narrower operational scope.

A validation of what bit.bio is today

Today, bit.bio positions itself as a cell programming and manufacturing company, rather than a drug developer. Its technology, opti-ox, is used to convert induced pluripotent stem cells into defined human cell types in a controlled and reproducible way, to produce consistent cells. This allows the company to provide cell models that behave consistently from batch to batch in an area where variability can undermine results. The cells are sold through bit.bio’s ioCells product range, to researchers and drug developers.

While bit.bio is no longer advancing its own cell therapies, the same technology could still underpin external therapeutic efforts through partnerships or licensing, a route the company has said it remains open to.

In the last couple of years, the company seemed to be experimenting to find the right model. From the outside, the 2025 restructuring cutting down staff could be seen as alarming, but by raising $50 million shortly after with a more focused strategy that suffers less from the risks associated with drug development, the company is sending more positive signals today. 

The round looks geared toward execution and scale, not strategic experimentation anymore. Indeed, new board member David Prior said in the press release: “I look forward to supporting the team as it expands its customer reach and becomes a key partner for pharmaceutical, biotech and research organisations worldwide.”